Cyburbia's Best Small Towns: State by State - Nominations (Northeastern States)

Many web sites and magazines do an annual "best of" feature, so why not Cyburbia? My thought is to come up with a list of our favorite small towns. One for each state. The only criteria is population, and I will arbitrarily define a small city as under 25,000. As for the rest, maybe you like it for its layout, its amenities, its downtown, or whatever.

This is a call for nominations. Since there are a lot of states I will break it up into regions. The first is the northeast: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. I will put all of the nominations together in a survey later.

My nominations:

Woodstock, VT - The quintessential New England town. Set amid rolling hills. The downtown has a pretty commons flanked by 17th and 18th Century homes, and commercial buildings from a variety of styles up to the early 1900's. http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&r...ed=0CEgQsAQwBA

Bethlehem, NH - This town is a gateway to the White Mountains, not far from Franconia Notch. A prosperous little downtown is filled with art galleries amid shops for the locals. The Colonial Theater is a rare example of 20th Century Egyptian Revival. The town is the base for a successful business incubator promoting artisans and other small businesses - one of the best I have seen. http://www.bethlehemwhitemtns.com/

Bar Harbor, Maine - A tourist town, but still with plenty of authentic character. Acadia Park lies adjacent. Visit downtown for breakfast, hike, then return for a massage and coffee in the afternoon. I bought Roscoe (our recently departed dog) his favorite toy here at a shop called Bark Harbor. Take in some of the shingle style architecture in town and in the mansions along the shore. http://www.barharborinfo.com/

Haddonfield, NJ-lovely downtown with a great mix of shops, restaurants, offices with great historic character. Nice farmers market, art scene, has public transportation, and is near Philadelphia. http://www.haddonfieldnj.org/downtown.php

Haddonfield, NJ-lovely downtown with a great mix of shops, restaurants, offices with great historic character. Nice farmers market, art scene, has public transportation, and is near Philadelphia. http://www.haddonfieldnj.org/downtown.php

However, my vote would be for Rutland - because it's somewhat of an anomaly. The scale is much larger than its population would suggest, and its one of the few remaining vintages of industrial, gritty, small-town Vermont as it was prior to the 2nd-home and resort revolution changed the state's demographics.

Fredonia/Dunkirk, NY - Dunkirk is the city with a great harbor and a pair of great lake-side parks while Fredonia is the village next door with a great little downtown as well as the state college

Saranac Lake, NY - a really beautiful town in the heart of the Adirondaks, prettier than Tupper Lake and less commercialized than Lake Placid

Canandaigua, NY - since somebody already named Watkins Glen, I'll plug Canadaigua for its historic downtown, the beautiful and historic Sonnenberg Gardens, its lakeside park ... right in the heart of the Finger Lakes with Ithaca, Watkins Glen, and Seneca Falls within easy drives, all surrounded by wine country

I have not been to Winooksi since the mid-1970s. Arrived via ferry that transported me, Donna (2), our International Scout, and a canoe across Lake Champlaign. We had been camping and decided on a motel room. After enjoying a meal we decided to look for a drive-in theater. The Winooski drive-in theater had a Triple X movie on the venue. We assumed that, because it was a drive-in movie and because the big screen could be seen from the highway, the Triple X movie would be just soft porn. Not! The flicks were hard core adult films.

Yeah, states are very crude units from which to construct regions. In that context, however, all of New York state is generally considered part of the Mid-Atlantic region even though many areas upstate resemble New England more than New Jersey or Pennsylvania.

But then again Northern NY State isn't exactly mid atlantic either. Also, Watkins Glen is actually more north than the entire state of CT, and RI. SO where does upstate NY belong?

That is not my concern. As a New Englander, my sole concern is the clarification that New England includes six states, and only these six states: CT, MA, ME NH, RI and VT. There is absolutely no debating this.

That is not my concern. As a New Englander, my sole concern is the clarification that New England includes six states, and only these six states: CT, MA, ME NH, RI and VT. There is absolutely no debating this.

No kidding, its sort of how some lump N Datkota and Michigan/Ohio into the Midwest. Come on now, does it really matter? I consider Michigan Ohio to be Great Lakes states and N Dakota to be a Great Plain state. In the grand scheme of things it don't really matter. Ohio shares much of the same type of Geography as New York State (well less mountainous, but NYS mountains are not that great to begin with). Both have few lakes but lots of rivers (compared to Michigan and Wisconsin) , and abut Great Lakes. Would this Make NYS part of the Midwest?

first of all - the thread said northeast so that's why I included New York in my review

Having said that, everyone knows that anything west of the Hudson (or the Connecticut River if you haven't left Medford in a while) is the Midwest so yes, my hometown of Syracuse NY has more in common with Ohio than the city...